You may be thinking about the connection between diabetes and menopause. Well, for women reaching that age, it can be very traumatic. Menopause is not necessarily a negative experience. It is sometimes called “life changing” as there are many changes in a woman’s body, both around and after menopause.
Menopause marks an important transition into the last third of a woman’s life. It gives women and their health professionals the opportunity to review health risks, plan preventive activities, and establish follow-up strategies. This is especially important in women with diabetes because of the cardiovascular risk of menopause and those associated with diabetes. The importance of menopause is often not appreciated by women with diabetes, nor by their healthcare professionals, and opportunities to avoid future problems may be missed.
Menopause is a natural process that women go through when the fertile years come to an end and the ovaries stop releasing eggs each month. Menopause is generally defined as the point at which periods stop. Menopause is not an event, but rather a slow process, often lasting up to 10 years. It starts at the age of 40 (sometimes in your late 30s) and the average age for most women to have their last period is 51, when the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone begin to wane.
How Menopause Affects Diabetes
As menopause approaches, the ovaries gradually stop producing the hormone estrogen and progesterone. Both hormones affect insulin, which is the hormone produced by the pancreas that delivers glucose, which sustains the life of every cell in the body.
Lowering estrogen and progesterone levels can:
Increase blood sugar. This will mainly occur during perimenopause, when the body can become more resistant to insulin, causing blood sugar to rise.
Lower blood sugar. This will be around the time you hit menopause. Where estrogen and progesterone levels permanently decrease. Where the body can regain its sensitivity to insulin, causing blood sugar levels to drop.
The hormonal fluctuations that characterize menopause can wreak havoc on your hard-earned blood glucose control. With less progesterone, there can be increased insulin sensitivity, and with less estrogen, insulin resistance increases, and the lack of these hormones can also cause other changes that can worsen the complications of diabetes. For example, low estrogen levels increase the risks of cardiovascular disease, which are already higher for people with diabetes and osteoporosis.
Many symptoms are attributed to menopause, with the most common being hot flashes, sleep disturbances, night sweats, and decreased ability to think clearly. Both menopause and diabetes produce similar symptoms. Some people mistake symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, moodiness, etc., with symptoms of low blood sugar, thus incorrectly assuming that these symptoms are the result of low blood sugar. in the blood and begin to consume unnecessary calories, which in turn increases blood sugar and intentionally causes a spike in blood sugar
Because of diabetes, women experience more intense and frequent episodes of low blood sugar, especially at night. This can affect your sleep, already disrupted by menopause, associated with hot flashes and night sweats. Such sleep deprivation causes fluctuations in blood sugar.
To combat this, women choose to take hormone replacement therapy, or HRT. But this will not be possible in the case of women if they are diabetic since these hormones affect blood sugar. But these doses with TRH are very low and do not have much of an effect. In that case, the diabetes medication should also be adjusted. If the woman is exposed to these hormones, she has benefits such as
protect the heart
Protect bones from calcium loss that can lead to brittle bones.
Eliminating symptoms such as hot flashes (which are easy to mistake for hypoglycemia) helps you fall asleep and think more easily.
complications of menopause
Most women will experience this complication, but the intensity can vary within each woman.
irregular bleeding
Hot flushes
Vaginal thinning and dryness
Osteoporosis
heart diseases
Menopause is complete when you have not menstruated for 12 months. Women with type 1 diabetes experience menopause earlier than average. Women with type 2 diabetes may reach menopause later than average if they are above a healthy weight, since estrogen levels do not decline as quickly in overweight women.
This is a major problem for many women, as they gain weight and become less active during this time, exacerbating blood glucose control difficulties. Therefore, it is vitally important to plan a nutritious and low-fat diet with calcium supplementation if necessary and physical activity. How these measures will reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases by keeping the cholesterol level low and protecting the bones against the thinning of osteoporosis.
Regular exercise benefits the heart and bones, helps regulate weight, contributes to a general sense of well-being, and improves mood. Sedentary women are much more prone to coronary heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and osteoporosis. They also suffer from chronic back pain, stiffness, insomnia, and irregularity. Depression is also a problem. Therefore, exercise plays an important and beneficial role as it prevents these problems and also achieves higher HDL cholesterol levels.
The benefits of regular exercise
o Increases circulation, and improves the regulation of body temperature.
o Improves weight control by increasing basal metabolic rate and lean body mass.
o Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases by strengthening the circulatory system, lowering blood pressure and maintaining a healthier level of cholesterol in the blood.
o Increase strength and range of motion.
o Elevates your mood and controls stress.
o Reduces the likelihood of osteoporosis.
Some suggestions that can reduce the discomfort of menopause:
1. Eat well-balanced meals that are the foundation for managing diabetes.
2. Eliminate caffeine, which can help reduce hot flashes.
3. Consume more vegetables and soy products, which decreases the discomfort associated with menopause since these foods contain phytoestrogens (vegetable estrogens.
4. Last but not least, being physically active can help boost energy levels and give you a mental boost.
Therefore, menopause is an important stage in a woman’s life in which she undergoes many physical changes. Your body goes through changes that can affect your social life, your feelings about yourself, and your functioning at work. Until recently, menopause was often surrounded by misconceptions and myths, but it comes naturally; step in the aging process. Therefore, one must accept menopause and age gracefully, because “As a white candle in a holy place, so is the beautiful beauty of an aging face.”
